Deleted Comments Prove University Staffer Threatened to Rape Pro-Life Women

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 12, 2016   |   6:26PM   |   Lafayette, IN

After Purdue University staffer Jamie Newman was accused of posting an online comment threatening to rape pro-lifers, Newman told the media that his comments were taken out of context. Unfortunately, the university does not appear to be willing to hold Newman accountable.

Today, The Blaze uncovered and published some of the deleted comments that provide context to Newman’s post. They do not appear to make the threat any less serious.

The comments, including Newman’s, had been deleted by the LiveAction News website monitor because they violated the site’s terms and conditions related to harassment of other users, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Students for Life of America reported discovering Newman’s violent comment while monitoring online discussions about its student pro-life club at Purdue.

According to Students for Life, Newman used his Disqus account “jamiegnewman” to post the following comment at LiveAction:

Oh, I’m sorry. So, let me make my intentions quite explicit: I did in fact offer to rape Tom’s wife/daughter/great grandmother. Free of charge, even. I’m generous that way.

Here’s the number for the West Lafayette Police Department: 765-775-5500. Here’s the number for the local FBI office: 765-435-5619. Drop that dime! I could strike at any minute

*giggles* (like a girl)

University officials announced this week that they were investigating the situation; but just days later, school officials closed the case against Newman, saying they had not found “sufficient evidence to take action” against him, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reports.

“As far as the university is concerned, the speech was repugnant and inconsistent with Purdue values,” the Purdue statement read. “We don’t condone it, but at this time no personnel action is intended.”

After the announcement, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told LifeNews: “It is an awful precedent. So employees of Purdue University can go around saying they are going to rape people online and that’s okay with them? This man represents their university.

Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter.

“My question: Will those on the other side of the abortion issue, those feminists who claim to be for women, now speak out and join us to say that rape threats are never tolerable?” she continued.

Police are investigating the incident, however. Purdue told MRCTV the Purdue University Police Department is “following standard procedures in conducting interviews and gathering information about the alleged statements.”

Newman told the local newspaper that his comments were taken out of context.

“As for the idea that I actually threatened to rape some random stranger’s wife and children — well, that’s also a complete fabrication, but one built on a fragment of a much longer conversation,” Newman said. “You could view the whole conversation over at liveactionnews.org, except they took down my side of it. Makes it so much easier to spin when all relevant context is removed.”

He posted a similar comment on the Purdue Students for Life Facebook page: “If you’d actually read the entire post, which of course you can’t, since the slimy worms at LiveActionNews took it down, you’d realize that I did not [sic] such thing.”

Here is some of the context of the conversation that The Blaze obtained from Live Action News:

Image source: Live Action News

Image source: Live Action News

Image source: Live Action News

Image source: Live Action News

Image source: Live Action News

A group of Purdue students are planning a demonstration Monday calling on “the University to terminate its employment of Jamie Newman in light of his reprehensible actions and restore our confidence in this historic institution.” The Facebook group, “Purdue Stand for Accountability,” said they welcome everyone to join the event to stand against threats of sexual assault on campus.

The situation originated with backlash against the Purdue Students for Life after the club members put up posters around campus focusing on how the abortion industry targets black women and their unborn babies for abortions. In coordination with Black History Month, the campaign posters read “Hands Up, Don’t Abort” and “Black Children are an Endangered Race” and included the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

On Monday, a small group of pro-abortion students and faculty held a sit-in protest during the pro-life club’s meeting and demanded an apology, LifeNews reported.

After the controversy, Newman also allegedly posted two comments on Feb. 4 on the pro-life club’s Facebook page, according to screen shots by Students for Life:

You folks are vile, racist idiots, who richly deserve all the opprobrium that will be heaped on you as a result of this unbelievably thoughtless, stupid escapade. That you are seemingly incapable of appreciating the moral, legal, and social differ[ences]…

And that you should have pulled this stunt at the beginning of Black History Month suggests you are are either epically cluless or profoundly malicious. So which is is – embarrassingly dumb or simply evil?

Hawkins said Newman’s abusive behavior should not be tolerated.

“Purdue must terminate their relationship with Mr. Newman now,” Hawkins said. “For the past week, our students have been called ‘racists,’ ‘human garbage,’ and ‘ignorant c*nts.’ They have courageously stood their ground and have met with black students who were offended by their educational display to explain their event and ask for help for future events. But now the safety of our students has been put into risk. Purdue cannot let a staff member publicly call for the rape of their students no matter how unpopular their speech.”

Newman is listed on the university website a division of dance accompanist and composer.

ACTION: Tell Purdue University to re-open its investigation of Jamie Newman.

jamienewman4